Spatial variability of new snow amounts derived from a dense network of Alpine automatic stations
Author: Egli, Luca
Source: Annals of Glaciology, Volume 49, Number 1, October 2008 , pp. 51-55(5)
Publisher: International Glaciological Society
Key:
- Free Content
- New Content
- Subscribed Content
- Free Trial Content
- Free Content
- New Content
- Subscribed Content
- Free Trial Content
Abstract:
Since 1996, a dense network of Alpine automatic weather and snow-measurement (Interkantonales Mess- und Informationssystem (IMIS)) stations has been in operational use for local and regional avalanche warning. The measurements of the IMIS stations are assumed to be representative for spatially extended regions around the measuring sites for applications in avalanche risk management. In this study, the regional representativeness of these stations with regard to the daily amount of new snow is investigated. The results show that the amount of daily new snow is spatially correlated in a range of ∼5-55 km. Regarding simultaneous observations of daily new snow measurements, which are ∼5-10 km apart, the probability of detection (POD) is given as 0.5±0.03. In this paper, the POD of an automatic warning network is introduced as an indicator of the representativeness of point measurement information for avalanche warning applications. The results of this study may mark a reference value for verification of spatially distributed Alpine meteorological models which evaluate the amount of daily new snow in the Swiss Alps.Document Type: Research article
DOI: 10.3189/172756408787814843
Key:
- Free Content
- New Content
- Subscribed Content
- Free Trial Content
- Free Content
- New Content
- Subscribed Content
- Free Trial Content
Click here for Page Help